EU-IMF arrival to save banks moved Greens to decision

ANALYSIS:Party plan to leave Government took root on Saturday and was played out yesterday

YESTERDAY MORNING’S dramatic announcement by party leader John Gormley that the Greens would leave Government by the end of January was the culmination of a process that began towards the end of last week, but took root on Saturday.

The trigger for the decision to pull the plug on the three-year Coalition came in the middle of last week when it was announced that the EU and the IMF would be intervening to save the Irish banks from certain collapse.

“The development of the commission, ECB and IMF involvement changed the whole political sense and public sense,” said Green Minister Eamon Ryan last night.

A number of the party’s TDs and Senators, most notably Paul Gogarty and Niall Ó Brolcháin, had been vocal in recent weeks about the need for the Greens to reassert its identity as a party and to distinguish itself from Fianna Fáil.

But senior members insisted last night the party was not looking for an opportune time to execute a pre-cooked exit strategy. Rather, they argued, the news that outside agencies were coming in was a genuine “game- changer”. Of course, Ryan accepted last night the absence of a proper communications strategy by Government Ministers last week did not help.

According to party strategists, the decision to leave Government after the budget and the four-year plan were implemented “crystallised” over the the weekend. The parliamentary party held a meeting on Saturday at which the view was canvassed.

Further discussions involving the parliamentary party took place late on Sunday night after the Cabinet meeting. The final decision was taken early yesterday morning, resulting in the press conference at 11.30am.

To say that the news came as a “bolt out of the blue” for Fianna Fáil is a severe understatement. John Gormley decided to inform Taoiseach Brian Cowen shortly after 11am but found he could not get through, as Cowen was in a long interview with a local radio station in Tullamore. He got through at 11.30am, just as the press conference was due to start.

Brian Lenihan was also unaware of it when “doorstepped” by reporters as he left an engagement. It was evident from his comments that he refused to believe that it was happening.

Cowen, asked later if he felt a sense of betrayal at the bombshell, said the word was not in his lexicon. However, a number of senior Fianna Fáil figures were furious at the Greens for moving so precipitously. They pointed out that the junior party more or less knew they were pulling out all weekend but had said nothing. What’s more, they had argued the toss on the four-year plan, thus contributing to the delay of its publication by a day.

Last night Ryan justified the stance on the basis that the party had to arrive independently at its own strategy, that with the arrival of the IMF and EU, it was important that it set out its own views.